AN INTERNET paedophile who downloaded indecent images of young children has avoided going to jail.

William George Coysh appeared before Chester Crown Court to be sentenced after admitting 16 counts of making indecent images of young children, and one of possessing them.

Judge Roger Dutton told the 51-year-old that he considered the interests of the public would be best served by a period of rehabilitation and a 20-year order restricting his internet activities.

Simon Mills, prosecuting, said that Cheshire police, acting on information from the Grampian force, had called at Coysh's home, Hill View House, Main Street, Frodsham.

Police in Scotland had in their possession correspondence from Coysh to a 14-year-old girl in which he apologised for lying to her about being aged 17, and told her he was instead in his 40s. The information had been found in Coysh's locker at the Stena D oil rig in Scotland.

The court was told he had built up a relationship with the girl via the internet, and had met her, but denied anything sexual had taken place.

Cheshire police, however, called at his home on June 8 last year to check his computer.

A laptop computer was seized, and in it was a CD Rom containing 22 images of young children.

Of the 22, three were classified at level 4, one at level 3, one at level 2, and seventeen at level 1 - level five being the worst possible classification for indecent material.

Geoffrey Lowe, defending, said very few of the images were of the high level, and that the images related only to one date.

Sentencing him to the maximum three years community rehabilitation order, Judge Dutton said: 'I make it plain to you that sentencing is based entirely on the number of images represented here. It is, in the scheme of things, a very limited number of images.'

But he added: 'The general point is those people who choose to download are encouraging those who take the photographs, and are essentially encouraging the sexual abuse of children, and the court take a serious view.'

Coysh must attend a specialist sex offenders' group and sign on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

He was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for 20 years which prevents him from downloading material (other than for work) from the internet and bans him from accessing chat rooms.